Salesforce Sustainability Leader Thinks AI Will Be a Climate ‘Good Guy’ [Video]

As tech companies race to develop artificial intelligence, or AI, a dark side of the new technology has emerged. The large computing power behind AI requires enormous amounts of electricity, and the energy demand for AI data centers is driving up greenhouse gas emissions for major tech companies despite their ambitious climate targets.

But Salesforce Executive Vice President Suzanne DiBianca said AI has great potential to help solve data-intensive problems associated with climate change and the clean-energy transition.

“I think, 100 percent, AI will be a good guy as it relates to climate,” DiBianca told Newsweek in a wide-ranging interview about AI and sustainability.

As chief impact officer at Salesforce, DiBianca leads environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy at the company with a special focus on climate action programs to get Salesforce to net-zero emissions.

San Francisco-based …